söndag 17 februari 2013

Latvian, Polish, Finnish and Swedish contributions

LIVING RAINBOW HISTORY MUSEUM

STOCKHOLM – The second session of Sweden's Living Rainbow History Museum at Café Mannekäng at Tallkrogen on Saturday, January 26 included presentations about the LGBT human rights struggle in Latvia, the work of the Latvian LGBT organization Mozaika and the rainbow cultural scene in this Baltic nation by Yolanta Cihanovica, psychologist/ actress and ILGCN (International rainbow cultural network) cultural co-ordinator for Latvia while Olga Helly, Latvia's ILGCN cultural ambassador, presented some of her artistic dolls.

"We hope to continue such events in Riga and Stockholm -- and increase co-operation with Sweden and other countries in the region," says Yolanta Cihanovica. Other presentations in the Latvian section of the program included a description of living in Stockholm and Riga and coming out as a trans person by Petra Inna and "A Swedish Look at Latvia" by Kjell Rindar.

Another presentation covering a 3-month solidarity trip to Palestine and work with the Swedish Palestine Committee was made by Sweden's Peter Roth, poems about a nostalgic visit to New York and elsewhere were presented by Sweden's Tomas Åberg and several songs were provided by Finnish participants.

Michal Piotrowski of the Polish Institute in Stockholm described his just-completed visit to LGBT colleagues in Warsaw and to the Polish Parliament along with Swedish Parliamentarian Barbro Westerholm who spoke there about LGBT rights, while Bill Schiller of Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers)/ILGCN described the first historic visit of an official rainbow delegation to the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz.

The short film,"Glad, Warm & Calm-- you never really loved me," by Axel Mihau portrayed a passionate and music-filled transsexual encounter for the museum audience.

These are monthly events with historical study circles, art, films and performances until a permanent LGBT museum can be established in the Swedish capital -- with guests coming from Sweden and abroad -- emphasizing the rich, dramatic, bloody, courageous and often humorous LGBT struggle for identity and visibility over the centuries. The museum project is supported by Konstattack, Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers), Nordic Rainbow Humanists, 3rd Age International-Sweden, Nordic-Baltic-Polish-Russian-Belarus Network, ROHS (Swedish national organization for LGBT solidarity) and the ILGCN (international rainbow cultural network).